Protective gloves, especially sports gloves, are well known and commonly used to protect an athlete's hands from injury. In baseball, racquetball or squash, a player should have sufficient hand protection to minimize fractures, bruises or soreness caused by the ball or by impact with other hard surfaces. In addition, such hand protection should maintain the flexibility for proper handling of a bat or racquet. A commercially available baseball batting glove made by Mizuno Corporation has foam padding over the back of the hand and on the forefinger, index finger and ring finger to provide protection during batting. The pinky finger is free of padding to allow the batter to better grip the bat.
A variety of materials have been used as protective padding in gloves. Sawyer U.S. Pat. No. 4,864,660 issued Sep. 12, 1989 provides a front glove portion joined to a back glove portion, and a protective package affixed to the back glove portion. The protective package comprises one or more flexible materials such as leather, textile, plastic or foam and may include a flexible plastic substrate between a multi-dimensional stretchable material and the back of the glove. In Elliot et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,042,975 issued Aug. 23, 1977, a pair of protective plates conforming to the curved configuration of a batter's hands are releasably secured to the back of a glove.
Inflatable footwear is widely known, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,319,412 issued Mar. 16, 1982 to Muller, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,099 issued Sep. 9, 1986 to Signori, U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,426 issued Aug. 16, 1988 to Polus, et al and U.S. Pat. No. 4,887,367 issued Dec. 19, 1989 to Mackness, et al. However, as to gloves, air padding has generally only been used in boxing gloves. U.S. Pat. No. 4,095,294 issued Jun. 20, 1978 to Winterbottom describes a pneumatic cushion in a boxing glove. Wang U.S. Pat. No. 4,547,919 issued Oct. 22, 1985 also discloses an inflatable boxing glove in which gas impervious sheets are sealed together to form a cushioning layer.
Thin-walled, air-filled plastic cellular materials have been previously used as packing materials, but have not been used as padding for gloves. Wang U.S. Pat. No. 4,547,919, issued Oct. 22, 1985, illustrates a variety of inflatable articles and thin-walled cellular materials.
Despite the development of various protective gloves, there still remains a need for a lightweight, economically produced sports glove providing adequate protection for the back of a wearer's hand without sacrificing flexibility and comfort.